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Door-ding protection

Joined
17 June 2007
Messages
29
Location
San Jose, CA
I'm considering a new apartment where my assigned spot would be between two others. My cherry '93 has never had a door ding because I've always parked it away from other cars or in an end spot, staggered to the side. The apartment's great but I'm worried that my car will become peppered with door dings. They tell me no options for getting a different spot or trading with someone else. Any thoughts? I'm investigating door-ding protectors but most of them are magnetic so won't stick to aluminum. A few have suction cups but might mar/scuff the paint, especially since this is my daily driver and is not always clean. And anyway they'll probably get stolen because crime has soared in California.

Any thoughts?
 
I'm considering a new apartment where my assigned spot would be between two others. My cherry '93 has never had a door ding because I've always parked it away from other cars or in an end spot, staggered to the side. The apartment's great but I'm worried that my car will become peppered with door dings. They tell me no options for getting a different spot or trading with someone else. Any thoughts? I'm investigating door-ding protectors but most of them are magnetic so won't stick to aluminum. A few have suction cups but might mar/scuff the paint, especially since this is my daily driver and is not always clean. And anyway they'll probably get stolen because crime has soared in California.

Any thoughts?
I would investigate the possibility of hanging a barrier right over the parking lot lines on both sides of your car. A moving blanket comes to mind. It would be flexible and yet thick enough to absorb an opening door. Cardboard also might work. It doesn't have to cover the length of the car; only the portion of the next door car's door areas. Just an idea.
 
buy a cheap beater and keep the nsx which is a precious appreciating asset in a safe spot...
 
buy a cheap beater and keep the nsx which is a precious appreciating asset in a safe spot...

Agreed…

I couldn’t live in a place that crowded. I need my space and my garage. If I didn’t have either I’d just own a motorcycle.
 
Thanks, guys. I do have a beater; that would have to be parked on the street or in one of the "open" spots outside the security gate. I did come up with an idea to use a fat 3.5" pool noodle with a microfiber loop near one end that would hang from the rear-view mirror in front and attach via a small suction cup to the lower front corner of the rear window. I could make it two-piece (so it would fit in the trunk) with a duct-tape hinge on the bottom so it would lie straight like one long straight piece when hung.

Or I could decide to continue living in this somewhat dark, small apartment a while longer, though I'm unlikely to find an apartment as good as the proposed one, and any future place I'm likely to find the same parking challenges, hmmm...
 
If you have a beater for daily use, I would be inclined to go with the moving blanket option. I have seen the moving blankets. They are pretty good; but, they are a significant hassle to install if the car is used every day. I expect that after a couple of weeks of trying to use a blanket on a daily driver the hassle would wear thin and you would end up not using it. Plus, the blankets that I have seen are bulky and stiff enough the I am not sure that they would fold up and fit into the NSX trunk.

There are car covers made from Sunbrella and bonded 4 layer materials (I have used both) that provide some ding protection. The bonded 4 layer material provides more ding protection than Sunbrella; but, is stiff and bulky and is more difficult to fold up and store. Not as bulky as a storage blanket; but in order to get it to fold up into a smaller package you need to lay it out on a large flat surface to fold it up. The Sunbrella is a moderately thick woven fabric (very much like the OEM NSX car cover) and you can fold the sides up while it is on the car and then roll it up on the top of the car into a smaller roll. Much easier to manage than the 4 layer material or a moving blanket; but, less ding protection.

If you want to go with the hang from the side of the car option (like your noodle), I might be inclined to try a roll of EPDM or closed cell foam (like a pilates mat??). It would take a little creativity to get it to hang and stay in place; but, much less bulky than a thick noodle which might be a bit of a hassle if the parking is tight.

As a final observation. The doors on the NSX are really long. I have collected some much stuff in my garage that I have a designated spot that the NSX needs to be parked on because I have that valuable stuff cleared away at the sides to allow the doors to open. Park off that spot and you are doing the limbo to get out with a 1/2 open door. If the proposed covered parking spot is narrow and the person next to you has a Ford F150 on steroids are you even going to be able to get in and out of the car without dinging the adjacent vehicle?
 
I share the same concern. How about something like these that hang over the doors.

https://www.snmstore.com/?category_id=5891859

I'm considering a new apartment where my assigned spot would be between two others. My cherry '93 has never had a door ding because I've always parked it away from other cars or in an end spot, staggered to the side. The apartment's great but I'm worried that my car will become peppered with door dings. They tell me no options for getting a different spot or trading with someone else. Any thoughts? I'm investigating door-ding protectors but most of them are magnetic so won't stick to aluminum. A few have suction cups but might mar/scuff the paint, especially since this is my daily driver and is not always clean. And anyway they'll probably get stolen because crime has soared in California.

Any thoughts?
 
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